diff --git a/services/services.go b/services/services.go
index d0ebd0cb34a5e9cb36f43817b3b51226544f5885..00a8476e20db50b20873b4f9bcc782de4b155460 100644
--- a/services/services.go
+++ b/services/services.go
@@ -75,16 +75,19 @@ func CalculateUniqueAuthors(books []models.GutenbergBook) int {
     return len(authorsSet)
 }
 
-// CheckServiceAvailability checks the availability of a given service URL.
-func CheckServiceAvailability(serviceURL string) string {
+func CheckServiceAvailability(serviceURL string) int {
     resp, err := http.Get(serviceURL)
     if err != nil {
-        return "Unavailable"
+        // If there's an error, might want to return a status code indicating the service is unavailable
+        return http.StatusServiceUnavailable
     }
     defer resp.Body.Close()
-    return http.StatusText(resp.StatusCode)
+
+    // Return the HTTP status code of the response
+    return resp.StatusCode
 }
 
+
 // Assuming you have a global variable to track the start time of your service.
 var serviceStartTime = time.Now()